The Conflict between Medieval and Renaissance Values in Doctor Faustus

The Conflict between Medieval and Renaissance Values in Doctor Faustus Doctor Faustus, is a play by Christopher Marlowe, based on a folktale of Germantic people, in which a man by selling his soul to devil for passionately seeking for power, the power of knowledge for twenty-fourth years living in all voluptuousness with the servitude from Mephastophilis. In this play, it has revealed about sin, redemption or damnation, the influence of power on corrupting, the divided nature of man, and the conflict between medieval and renaissance values. However, in my following essay, I would like to focus on the subject of conflict between medieval and renaissance. The Renaissance was a movement that began in Italy in the fifteenth century and soon spread throughout Europe, influenced over all aspects of intellectual inquiry, from literature, science, art, politics to religion, etc. Nevertheless, with the advent of Renaissance, there is a clash between the medieval world and Renaissance, the medieval world placed God at the center of existence, there’s only one book you should read throughout your lifetime—the Bible. To be frankly, in the medieval academy, theology is the queen for everything; on the other hand, in the Renaissance, people pursued the idea of anthropocentric, which means it carrying a new emphasis on individuals, on classical learning, and on scientific inquiry into the nature of the world. There are apparent examples from the context of Faustus which showing the conflict between the medieval and Renaissance. For instance, the first one, in the medieval, a scholar or monks were defined or regarded as women, without being respected, it was more likely to be despised or discriminated. However, in this play, Faustus is being a “well-respected” German scholar, because in Renaissance, constantly in pursuit of knowledge is regarded as the most important thing, people should pursuit the goal of going beyond the limits of oneself. As presented in the story, Faustus goes through every field of scholarship, and grows dissatisfied with the limit of traditional forms of knowledge—logic, medicine, law, and religion—and decides that he wants to learn the necromancy, with that kind of mysterious alchemy, he can become like God, or even greater than God. In addition, Faustus is portrayed as a hero in the story, with the power of alchemy, Faustus can make people who died many years seems to revive again, doing many things that normal people can’t do. Being love and respect by the king and other people, Faustus’s self-confident, vanity, and hubris arises spontaneously, however, he’s only gradually pushing himself into an inexorable misadventure, because the pact with Lucifer will expire ultimately. Second, Faustus begins to travel around the world after armed with his new power, the necromancy, and attended by Mephastophilis; with the capability to move instantaneously, also indicated the advances in technology and transportation. With the advent of The Age of Discovery in fifteen century, not only the expansion of territory also the growth of knowledge, people at that time started to have different views on the world. Third, there’s still a shadow of conventional religions inside the works, Doctor Faustus. For example, when Faustus asks Mephastophilis the questions about the nature of the world, Mephastophilis answers all of them, but with only one exception, refusing to answer the question of who made the universe because--God made the universe. Throughout this play, it also conveys this belief continuously, as long as Faustus is willing to repent, he’s still can avoid the damnation and regain the redemption from God. Furthermore, Marlowe also use his techniques to undermine Faustus’s heroic stature; once Faustus gains his awesome powers, instead of using them to do great deeds, like God, he uses his power to playing tricks on people, such as the antlers on the knight’s head and the enchanted horse. Such magical practical jokes seems to be Faustus’s major amusement, and “Marlowe used them to illustrate Faustus’ decline from a great, prideful scholar into a bored, mediocre magician with no higher ambition than to have a laugh at the expense of a collection of simpletons”(SparkNotes Editors). After reading this works, Faustus may just be the author’s projection, reflecting that in such an unstable era of ideological convention, he is also want to pursuit for knowledge, go beyond the limits, and get rid of the shackles of the church on people's thinking. The struggles with Faustus’s mental and soul, is also probably symbolized the realistic portrait of human being with a will divided between good and bad. Showing people’ anxiety and vacillation when faced the clash between the medieval world and Renaissance.